It’s hard to overstate how much of an impact Letterboxd has had on film-watching culture. The app, created by Kiwis Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, rocketed in popularity during the pandemic and sent its users running back into theaters once they reopened. Log the films you watch with a star rating and quippy review; movie magic handles the rest.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
Karl von Randow: It was weird that I didn’t like to touch warm or oily food with my hands, but then I watched As Good As It Gets and saw that things would be okay, or at least, could be worse.
Matthew Buchanan: The Cure’s Disintegration got me through at least two decades.
What would you like the headline of your obituary to be?
Von Randow: “Inbox Zero.”
When you were little, what were you known for?
Buchanan: A shock of blond hair, being pretty quick over 100 meters, and teaching my mother to use a word processor when I was 7.
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
Buchanan: The hardest part has been building something that’s never existed before—there’s no playbook for what Letterboxd is. But the most rewarding part has been the people. Everyone on our team has a story to tell and wants to do great work. We’ve had the good fortune to build a world-class group of people, and that makes the hard stuff a lot easier.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
Von Randow: People have always shared their thoughts and feelings about art. Letterboxd leverages technology to create a community of people who like to share their thoughts and feelings about art. So in that sense, the community is our biggest contribution to culture.
What keeps you up at night?
Von Randow: Right now it’s Avatar: The Way of Water. I have just returned from Italy and have a jet lag state-of-mind, so I’m waking up pretty early and using that time to rewatch before I dive into Fire and Ash. In Italy I saw doppelgängers for nearly everyone I know. But not Jim Cameron.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
Von Randow: We’re incredibly lucky to be building a product about something that people love: film. So our product decisions are about how we support things that people already want to do. We’re creating algorithms to help people find what they love, rather than to suck them in.
When’s the last time you laughed hysterically?
Buchanan: At a packed local premiere of Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. I came in cold to these characters and their perennial quest to play a gig at the Rivoli. On its surface the film is hilarious, and only funnier if you’re a Toronto native, I expect. Discovering later on how they pulled off the time travel scenes really tickled that part of me that loves learning how this stuff gets made.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
